49ers Officially Release OLB Ahmad Brooks

The San Francisco 49ers officially announced that they’ve released OLB Ahmad Brooks on Friday.

“We would like to thank Ahmad for his nine years of service and contributions to the 49ers,” said 49ers general managerJohn Lynch. “In that time, he played a significant role on some formidable defensive units that helped this team achieve great success. We feel good about the depth and competition along our defensive front and believe that by making this decision now it will give Ahmad a head start on exploring his options with other teams. We wish him and his family nothing but the best.”

San Francisco was reportedly holding out for a potential trade to surface, but it appears there wasn’t anyone willing to part with compensation for Brooks.

Brooks immediately becomes of the best available free agents and should draw interest from prospective teams in the near future.

Brooks, 33, is a former supplemental third-round pick of the Bengals back in 2006. He spent two years in Cincinnati before he was claimed off of waivers by the 49ers in 2008.

Brooks is currently in the final year of his six-year, $37 million contract that included $8.25 million guaranteed and set to make a base salary of $6.95 million for the 2017 season.

According to OverTheCap.com, releasing Brooks will free up $5.3 million of available cap space while creating $848,750 in dead money.

In 2016, Brooks appeared in all 16 games for the 49ers and recorded 35 tackles, six sacks, four pass defenses and a forced fumble. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 87 edge rusher out of 110 qualifying players.